RESTful resource with multiple view representations

Rails
1

Hi,

Could somewhat offer guidance on this situation.

Say I have a Product model and an associated resource reference
defined:

map.resources :products, :collection => { :search => :get }

I need to access the search action but have a different view
(generally RJS) rendered depending on the context of the call.

For example, if called from an order assembly page I might need the
resulting product collection displayed with add to basket links.
Whereas on another page I might need them rendered with add to
purchase order links.

I see to obvious solutions:

  1. Define multiple actions within a single resource. They would
    essentially have the same code but would call different RJS view code
    to render the result.

    map.resources :products, :collection => { :sales_order_search

=> :get, :purchase_order_search => :get }

  1. Have multiple resources such as as:

    map.resources :sales_order_products, :collection => { :search

=> :get }
map.resources :purchase_order_products, :collection =>
{ :search => :get }

If going down route 2 I’d probably just repurpose the index action to
check for a search_string param to narrow the results returned.

Both seem less than perfect, although I’m tended towards solution 1.
Although I’ve only highlighted two view contexts there could be more,
I would suggest 3 or 4 could be common. How would you handle this
situation?

Thanks, Andrew

2

On Oct 28, 8:43 am, Andrew E. [email protected]
wrote:

(generally RJS) rendered depending on the context of the call.
to render the result.

If going down route 2 I’d probably just repurpose the index action to
check for a search_string param to narrow the results returned.

Both seem less than perfect, although I’m tended towards solution 1.
Although I’ve only highlighted two view contexts there could be more,
I would suggest 3 or 4 could be common. How would you handle this
situation?

Thanks, Andrew

First off, what about using the same search action for each, and using
query parameters to specify the desired behavior? That way you won’t
need a new custom action every time you need a new “flavor” of search
call. It’s perfectly RESTful to append any query parameters you need
to your actions (/products/search?mode=purchase, or whatever).

However, maybe you really need a separate controller entirely, like a
ProductSearchesController, whose index action can take whatever
parameters you think are appropriate. That might help encapsulate all
of your searching functionality and keep the ProductsController
restful and clean.

Just some ideas…

Jeff

purpleworkshops.com

3

Thanks, I think I looked at something similar to a mode/context param
previously but seemed to drift away. I might have another look.

In this scenario are you suggesting sticking the conditional logic
against the mode param in the action RJS view?

@display_context = params[:context]

respond_to do |format|
format.js
end

Is there a way to specify the specific RJS file in the action?

Concept (format.js lines not necessarily valid, just to show
intention):

display_context = params[:context]

respond_to do |format|
if display_context == “sales”
format.js { :render => ‘sales_products’ }
if display_context == “purchase”
format.js { :render => ‘purchase_products’ }
else
format.js { :render => ‘products’ }
end
end

4

On Oct 28, 8:43 am, Andrew E. [email protected]
wrote:

(generally RJS) rendered depending on the context of the call.
to render the result.

If going down route 2 I’d probably just repurpose the index action to
check for a search_string param to narrow the results returned.

Both seem less than perfect, although I’m tended towards solution 1.
Although I’veonlyhighlighted two view contexts there could be more,
I would suggest 3 or 4 could be common. How would you handle this
situation?

Thanks, Andrew

G’day Andrew. I agree with Jeff that you should refactor searching out
of ProductsController.

I was in a similar situation to yours, where I needed to search for
[real estate] properties. At first, I created #filter in the Property
model, as well as #filter in PropertiesController. However, as time
went on, this became cumbersome, and filled up the Property model with
many methods that were only loosely related. To make life simpler, I
moved #filter from Property and PropertiesController into a new model,
called PropertyFilter.

Now when I want to search for properties with varying parameters, I
simply create a PropertyFilter instance, and let that work its magic
to perform the search.

If you decide to do this, I recommend having your new model inherit
from ActiveRecord::BaseWithoutTable :
http://agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/activerecord_base_without_table
It gives the model all of the fancy ActiveRecord methods (like #find,
#validates_*, etc) without the need for a database table behind it.

I hope that helps. Cheers,
Nick